Lord of the Rings Online MMO News, Guides, and Features at Ten Ton Hammer

Immediately upon exiting the instance, I noticed another small stroke that actually shocked me. I could see my breath. Standing there, on the slope of a cold mountain, surrounded by snow, I could see my character's breath puff up and hover around his face as he breathed. I couldn't believe it. Once again, such a small detail had an amazing effect on me and my investment in my character. He wasn't just some group of polygons to be dragged around, but was becoming a living and breathing extension of myself in a new world. It was a great feeling and at this point, I finally started to get over my grumbling about not being able to play an evil character. I was ready to move on and discover more about this new land I found myself in.

Dwarves must be from Texas... nothing is small!

Like some other more recent games, questing is the name of the game. I don't see any reason why you couldn't grind your way through levels, but I just couldn't do it without clawing my eyes out first. Questing in LotRO not only has the normal benefit of getting you some sorely needed levels in a relatively short period of time (at least in the beginning), but it also serves the secondary purpose of kicking you out of the nest. Initially, I'll admit that I was a little annoyed that everywhere I went, I seemed to be blocked off. It wasn’t until I realized that after you're dumped out of that first instance you're not quite out of the woods yet. You're in the same land area you would normally start in, but in what appears to be an earlier time frame. Once you complete a decent number of quests to get you between levels five and six, you do another instance that finally allows you free reign in your travels.

One of the coolest things I discovered early in the game was the ability to not only take a horse from one city to another, but the ability to jump off that horse at any time. Once again, it may sound small, but how many times have you been on a mount (land or air) and halfway to your destination realize you're right beside a mob area you need to hunt, or that you're currently flying over a rare resource you've been searching for. The ability to hit a dismount key at any point during your trip is nothing short of brilliant. It's just more proof that by taking a close look at the details of everything we're already used to that a game can begin to rise above the rest.

There's so much more to LotRO than the brief look I've given here so far. As of this moment, it's safe to say that I'm pretty impressed with what the Turbine team has done so far. It's been a very long time since any game has made a concerted effort to grab my attention right off the bat. Maybe they have tried, but in comparison to LotRO, the majority of the others have failed and failed badly. I know you're begging for more information right now, but don't worry. I won't leave you hanging. I'll be back next week with part two of Lord of the Rings Online: A Journey to Mount Doom, so stay tuned!